<b>The death of the pull tab (1975):</b> Reduced unnecessary litter when replaced with the current stay-tab, starting in 1975.

<b>The death of the pull tab (1975):</b> Reduced unnecessary litter when replaced with the current stay-tab, starting in 1975.

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<b>Punch-top can (2012):</b> Perhaps more gimmick than practical, but there is science behind the idea of a better pour when oxygen is allowed into the can as beer comes out.

<b>Punch-top can (2012):</b> Perhaps more gimmick than practical, but there is science behind the idea of a better pour when oxygen is allowed into the can as beer comes out.

Photo: PR NEWSWIRE

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<b>Houston's beer can house (1968):</b> Still open to the public for tours.

<b>Houston's beer can house (1968):</b> Still open to the public for tours.

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<b>Idiots stopped "sinking their empties" in our rivers (TBD):</b> OK, this one hasn't happened yet, but we can't wait until it does.

<b>Idiots stopped "sinking their empties" in our rivers (TBD):</b> OK, this one hasn't happened yet, but we can't wait until it does.

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The beer can makes a comeback

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The beer can is back.

The much-maligned runt of the beer container litter is undergoing a Renaissance, reports Ad Age, thanks to creative new packaging designs, inner liners that reduce the “aluminum taste” and, most importantly a new market in smaller boutique breweries who previously only bottled.

According to Ad Age, 97 percent of the nation’s 2,400 breweries could be classified as mom-and-pops (or, mom-and-pop-a-tops, if you like bad puns).

“Craft brewers are grassroots, and their sense of storytelling is: one can, one bottle, one keg at a time,” Julia Herz, craft-beer program director at the Brewers Association, told Ad Age. “There’s more room on the actual can to put their story. … The more they can talk about their personality, the better.”

Cans also offer a potentially longer shelf-life for craft beers, as it protects them from beer-hating natural elements light and air.